Sunday, 11 September 2011

First off, a small apology for the inactivity of the blog. I have no intention of stopping my blogging, but a couple of big changes have happened in our lives, which have prevented me from blogging for a while. The biggest of these is that we have moved from India! More about that later, now back to our adventures in Incredible India:
In a pleasant February month in 2010 we decided to bring our 6-month old boy Valdemar and his nannies on a trip outside Delhi. We wanted somewhere close and since Nitoli had never been to Jaipur before we chose the famous "pink city". Besides we could make it fit with Jaipur's annual Elephant Festival.

Single window section of the Palace of the Winds with coloured glass seen from the inside

I had a visited Jaipur two times earlier (see here, and here) and as with many other tourists my impression was not the very best. I found the place to be over crowded, ill maintained and the local economy way too tourism dependent for its own good. However, third time turned out to be the charm, as this would turn out to be my best visit by far - although not due to the disappointing elephant festival.

The classic from view of Hawa Mahal, adourning thousands of tourist brochures. Here photographed bathed in the warm sunlight of the early morning hours

We started at the city's undisputed landmark, "Hawa Mahal" or "Palace of the Winds" in English. This iconic structure was built to allow the local Maharaja's wives and concubines to be entertained by observing street life, without themselves being subject to the gleary stares of local men. The many small windows would secure this and secure maximum discretion.

More from Jaipur coming soon...

Less famous backside view of the Palace.

Tourists on top of the tall thin palace building

Jaipur is surrounded by hills, which can be clearly seen from the top of the Hawa Mahal.